Category: Health

Come on, admit it, we’ve all looked at those guys on the cover of novels and wondered where they hide during the day. Every time I look at the smoking hot guy on the cover of Angels, Demons and Doms, I start to drool. I also wonder where he lives and does he have a twin that lives near me. But the truth is, there are plenty of guys in my own gym who can look just like that – with the right preparation.

Okay, not everyone can look like a cover model. You need to start with someone who is ripped and muscular, not Santa Claus in posing trunks.

Then you put him on a very low carb diet. For at least two weeks before the photo shoot, he gets to eat only protein, fat (lots of oily fish and olive oil) and green vegetables. No cereal, bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, oatmeal, and of course, no fries, donuts or chips. Not that our guy eats those anyway.

You send him to the gym every day, and you tell him to get heavy with his deadlifts, squats, bench press, stiff-legged deadlift, pull-ups, bent over rows, dips and military press. He’s

got to lift heavy. Three sets of eight reps at 80% of his one-rep maximum is a good start.

On a low carb diet, this is going to be tough. Even after the gym, he only gets a post-workout shake of whey protein with a tiny amount of glucose. This depletes his glycogen stores and forces his body to burn fat instead. He’s probably going to lose at least ten pounds.

The day before the shoot, he does a full-body depletion workout where he works every muscle to failure. He is not going to enjoy this. When he’s finished and you finally allow him to crawl out of the gym, you give him a big whey shake containing at least 100g of pure sugar. Glucose/dextrose is great here. Add some creatine to this drink.

Those starved muscles will grab all that glucose and water and start to swell. Your cover model continues to carb-up by eating as many simple carbs as possible: bagels, Special K, jelly beans, glucose drinks, zero-fat puddings, and drinking lots and lots of

BUT (and this is the important point) breastfeeding MOTHERS sleep longer than bottle feeding mothers. They fall asleep quicker and feel less tired and more healthy during the day.

Exclusively breastfeeding mothers get more and better sleep than bottle feeding mothers. One big surprise is that the group that did the worst was the combination feeders, who did both breast and bottle.